The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has placed the COVID-19 vaccination back on its immunization schedule for pregnant women, months after it had been removed.
The CDC said on Oct. 7 that the COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women is recommended if women, after consulting with health care providers, decide to receive the shot.
Vaccination for COVID-19 is termed shared clinical decision-making, “with an emphasis that the risk-benefit of vaccination is most favorable for individuals who are at an increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease and lowest for individuals who are not at an increased risk, according to the CDC list of COVID-19 risk factors,” the CDC stated.
Those risk factors include pregnancy and recent pregnancy.
In May, the CDC removed the COVID-19 vaccination from the immunization schedule for pregnant women, following orders from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In a May 19 directive, later made public in a court case, Kennedy wrote that he determined there was a lack of high-quality data showing COVID-19 vaccination is safe during pregnancy. He also said there are potential risks to the mother and the unborn baby.
“Therefore, the CDC recommendation that pregnant women receive the COVID-19 vaccine is rescinded,” he wrote.
Kennedy said during an appearance on Capitol Hill the following month that “if a pregnant woman wants the COVID-19 vaccine, she can get it,” but that the recommendation was rescinded “because there was no science supporting that recommendation.”
The CDC first recommended the COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy in 2021.
After the removal, the CDC continued recommending the COVID-19 vaccination to most people.
The CDC’s vaccine advisory panel met in September to go over the COVID-19 vaccines. During the meeting, Retsef Levi, chair of the panel’s COVID-19 vaccine workgroup, said that most members of the group felt available data should lead to the panel not recommending COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy.
The panel ultimately, in a unanimous vote, said the CDC should update the COVID-19 vaccination recommendations and only direct people to receive a vaccine following consultation with a health professional, or shared clinical decision-making.
Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill accepted the advice on Oct. 6.
A day later, the CDC added the COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women back onto its immunization schedule. It also adjusted its posture for healthy children, shifting to shared clinical-decision making from recommending vaccination to only children with at least one risk factor.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the updated recommendation “includes an emphasis that the risk-benefit of vaccination in individuals under age 65 is most favorable for those who are at an increased risk for severe COVID-19” and that “high-risk groups including those who are pregnant or recently pregnant.”
Levi told The Epoch Times in an email that he looked at the immunization schedule and believes the update is consistent with both the recommendation from the advisory panel and Kennedy’s decision, “which was merely canceling the then existing recommendation of the CDC that all pregnant women should be vaccinated.”
“That said,” he added, “I acknowledge that the site could be confusing, and perhaps there is a better way to communicate this information.”